THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC WEEKLY FEB. 27, 2012 $3.50 OF MANY THINGS

PUBLISHED BY JESUITS OF THE UNITED STATES ’m not a jock —if by that we mean body. By competitive standards, unlike a muscled guy who watches every Dave, I was not an athlete; but I swam PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER I Superbowl and never misses a better than most people I knew, and JOHN P. S CHLEGEL , S.J. World Series game. People like that can when I got out of the army and joined throw a forward pass, sink a set shot the Jesuits, I began to take running seri - EDITOR IN CHIEF from center court, hit a golf ball straight ously. It was a double grace: running Drew Christiansen, S.J. and remember the statistics on Tom alone helped me pray; running with a EDITORIAL DEPARTMENT Brady and Enos Slaughter. In grammar companion formed friendships that MANAGING EDITOR school, when we chose sides for basket - endure today. Robert C. Collins, S.J. ball or touch football, I was the last guy At McQuaid I hung around track EDITORIAL DIRECTOR chosen. In high school at St. Joseph’s practice and, at 30, trained enough to Karen Sue Smith Prep in Philadelphia, I was cut from run a mile in seven minutes. But my ONLINE EDITOR the swimming team. I was slow. In the breakthrough came when college stu - Maurice Timothy Reidy 1962 basketball game between the stu - dents, whom I had challenged to read CULTURE EDITOR dents and faculty at McQuaid High more books, challenged me to push James Martin, S.J. School in Rochester, where I was teach - myself physically. When I was dean at LITERARY EDITOR ing, one of my Jesuit teammates advised Rockhurst College in Kansas City, a Raymond A. Schroth, S.J. me, when they finally put me into the student signed me up for a half- POETRY EDITOR game, that if I ever got the ball, I should marathon. James S. Torrens, S.J. get rid of it quickly. Somehow the ball At Holy Cross, where I was also ASSOCIATE EDITORS bounced into my hands, and I threw it dean, a student in the residence where I Kevin Clarke right away to the first adult I saw on was prefect tackled me in the hall, Kerry Weber the court. It was the ref. pinned me down and ordered me to ART DIRECTOR My father, a World War I hero and run in the New York Marathon with Stephanie Ratcliffe journalist, was determined that my him. So we did it. I had heard there ASSISTANT EDITOR Francis W. Turnbull, S.J. brother Dave and I would be able to were two kinds of people in the world: “take care of ourselves.” So beginning those who had run a marathon and BUSINESS DEPARTMENT when we were 3, he put us on horse - those who had not. I ran four more in CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER back, taught us to swim in the ocean Boston and Jersey City. Lisa Pope and to paddle a canoe. He knelt down One night 12 years ago I woke up to be our size and had us put on the with a sharp pain in my arm and chest. 106 West 56th Street boxing gloves and fight him. Life Two discs were impinging on my spinal New York, NY 10019-3803 Lesson No. 1: Don’t let anyone push cord. Within days I was on the operat - Ph: 212-581-4640; Fax: 212-399-3596 you around. Our parents sent us to a ing table. I miss running terribly. I take E-mail: [email protected]; summer camp with 35 horses, tennis hourlong walks every morning from [email protected] and fencing lessons, boxing, campfires America House to Times Square or Web site: www.americamagazine.org. and a Saturday morning ritual where Central Park; and when young men and Customer Service: 1-800-627-9533 the whole camp soaped up and bathed women go running by, I ache. I swim a © 2012 America Press, Inc. in the lake. few minutes almost daily and take long At St. Joe’s I went out for crew. bike rides along the Hudson River on Every day the eight of us would run the warm weekends. mile or so from the Prep down to the If I had my wish, every student in a Schuylkill River, row up and down Jesuit school would have to learn to under the great bridges, then run a few swim 100 yards and be able to run a extra miles before jogging home. At 17 mile in 10 minutes. That way fewer I was in the best shape of my life. That young people would drown or suffer summer I went to Alaska to work on the damage that comes with being over - the railroad but was fired after two weight. And all would know the joy of weeks for being too young. diving into an ocean wave or a long run Cover: A family at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate That year I began to understand along the beach. Conception in Washington, D.C. what it means to be at home in one’s RAYMOND A. SCHROTH, S.J. Photo: CNS/Nancy Wiechec CONTENTS www.americamagazine.org Vol. 206 No. 6, WholE No. 4962 FEBruary 27, 2012

ARTICLES 11 PEER PRESSURE A new Catholic wonders how to be pro-life. Ronnie D. Rubit

14 OUT OF PALESTINE Solidarity with a displaced people Elizabeth G. Burr

COLUMNS & DEPARTMENTS 4 Current Comment 11 5 Editorial A War Worth Fighting 6 Signs of the Times

9 Column A Broken System John J. DiIulio Jr.

17 Faith in Focus Children of God Elizabeth Kirkland Cahill

21 Poem The Physics of Attention Mary O’Connor 29 Letters

31 The Word A Faith That Binds Us Peter Feldmeier 17 BOOKS & CULTURE 20 FILM Sin and grace in the work of Martin Scorsese BOOKS Blue Nights; The Sense of an Ending; Called to Happiness

ON THE WEB ON THE WEB A slideshow of Palestinian Christian life , and a review of a new play on the life of Catherine of Siena . Plus, our annual podcast discussion of the Oscar contenders. All at americamagazine.org. 20 CURRENT COMMENT

Vatican officials are scrambling to counter assertions by Whither Syria? Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, now the papal nuncio to A double veto by Russia and China on Feb. 5 defeated a the United States, that the management of Vatican City weak U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syrian State is rife with corruption and waste. President Bashar al-Assad’s repression of the yearlong These stories hint at what could be a much larger prob - popular uprising against his autocratic rule. “A couple of lem. For too long, church officials failed to follow profes - members of this council,” said Susan Rice, U.S. ambas - sional business practices. Parishioners trusted their pastor sador to the United Nations, “remain steadfast in their or bishop to use their donations wisely. Fortunately, many willingness to sell out the Syrian people and shield a dioceses now make their financial statements available craven tyrant.” Russia claimed it would broker talks online; but the large majority do not include data on between the two sides, and the Arab League pledged to parishes, and only a handful have been officially audited. help advance a political transition. Meanwhile, the Syrian Further controls could be put in place. For example, while army launched its heaviest artillery attacks yet on civilian background checks are now required for all church apartment blocks in Homs. Barring outside assistance, the employees in the United States who work with children, Syrian people are destined to suffer even more cruelly. similar mandates do not exist for other church staff. The Free Syrian Army is under pressure to abandon its To be proper stewards of the financial resources they defensive posture; and in response to a yearlong assault by have been given, church officials must adopt transparent Mr. Assad, the population has begun to consider renounc - and fiscally responsible practices at all levels. A national ing nonviolence in favor of outright civil war. Western mandate may be the only way to ensure that all dioceses defense experts are urging arms shipments and training for follow the same standards. the rebels; and some Arab countries, like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, are expected to supply such aid. An international Help From Our Friends consensus exists for defending the Syrian people, begin - Christians who are hoping to become more active in their ning with 13 Security Council members supporting the church communities this Lent might do well to seek a little vetoed resolution. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is help from their friends. A new study by Samuel Stroope, a organizing a group called Friends of Syria not only to sociology researcher at Baylor University, found that indi - apply increased diplomatic and economic pressure but also viduals with many friendships in a faith community show to unite the Syrian opposition to prepare for “the morning higher levels of religiosity. But sharing a worship space after.” Given the prolonged, lethal attacks by the military does not mean these friends spend their free time dis - on nonthreatening civilian populations, another step might cussing doctrine. The study also showed that church-based be an International Criminal Court indictment of Mr. friendships had greater impact on individuals’ religious Assad and leading members of his regime for war crimes behavior than on their beliefs. Of the 1,600 adults sur - and crimes against humanity. veyed, 42 percent said that they had “a few” friends who attended their place of worship, and 32 percent said “none.” Transparent and Accountable The effect of church-based friendships among Catholics Ten years after the height of the sexual abuse crisis, and Protestants also differs. Stroope said that “Catholic con - Catholics may be inured to stories about scandal. A spate gregations received diminishing participation returns for the of recent events, however, demonstrates that Catholics congregational friendships of their members” when com - must continue to hold church officials accountable in order pared with Protestant congregations. Many Protestants see to ensure the integrity of the institution. their churches as a main facet of their social life. Catholics, In the Archdiocese of New York, a bookkeeper was on the other hand, often attend Mass more for sacraments recently charged with embezzling $1 million from church than for socializing. But the relative sizes of the respective accounts. Anita Collins had been convicted of similar church communities may also be a factor. crimes in the past, but the archdiocese never conducted a The study serves as a reminder that faith communities background check. In Philadelphia, the archdiocese fired must foster a welcoming environment. Building friendships its chief financial officer after it was discovered that she within a parish can help Catholics feel supported living out was paying personal credit card bills, which included large their faith in the world, and it could help heal divisions charges from casinos, with church checks. Meanwhile, within the church as well.

4 America February 27, 2012 EDITORIAL A War Worth Fighting

he Republican candidate Mitt Romney got into the front pages as the nation enjoyed hot water recently when he said he was so focused record levels of job growth. Ton restoring the nation’s middle class that he was Unemployment plummeted from “not concerned about the very poor.” He reasoned that they more than 7 percent in 1993 to just are covered by the country’s social service safety net. But he 4 percent in November 2000. is wrong to disregard poverty and wrong to think the Those better economic times may have contributed to human dignity of the poor has been adequately protected. the hardening of an ideological slogan into a cornerstone of But he at least said the “P” word out loud, if inadvertently. contemporary received wisdom—that government pro - So poll-determined is political rhetoric these days, one grams “can’t beat” poverty, and it is a waste of money even to could be forgiven for thinking the nation consists entirely try. But it should be recalled that President Lyndon of struggling members of the middle class. That is not Johnson’s War on Poverty generated perhaps the greatest exactly the case, of course. movement out of poverty in the nation’s history, cutting the Decades of not-so-benign neglect have allowed poverty level of national poverty in half, from 22 percent in 1962 to to molder in America’s cultural basement even as the bad just above 11 percent in 1973. The impact on the African- news on poverty has been unremitting since 2008. The nation American community was also dramatic, reducing poverty currently endures the highest rate of poverty since 1993, at from 55 percent in 1959 to 33 percent by 1970. And in our 15.1 percent. Child poverty is particularly bad, at over 20 per - own time various measures taken by the federal government cent; and within the nation’s African-American community, since the great collapse of 2008—like preserving Medicaid poverty has hit crisis levels, approaching percentages last seen and S-chip, the payroll tax cut and extensions of unemploy - in the late 1960s. Add in the near poor, people who are just ment payments—have saved millions from falling into a above the poverty threshold, and the picture becomes even deep poverty from which they and their children might more depressing—and more accurate—knowing that almost never have recovered. 50 percent of the nation is in a daily struggle to get by. It was refreshing to hear President Obama acknowl - Despite the gravity of the crisis, there is little enthusi - edge America’s poor and the biblical injunction to respond asm in austerity-addled Washington for a redeclaration of to their cry at the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 2. And the old war on poverty, though much has been said about it is encouraging that poverty in the United States is once income disparity and saving the nation’s middle class. The again making it above the fold in print and digital media. church cannot be accused of remaining silent. The U.S. Can the renewed coverage shame enough people in power in bishops and Catholic Charities USA have repeatedly spo - both the public and private sectors to do more to respond to ken up for the least among us as the economy has soured. the nation’s poverty crisis? The problem of poverty has been showing up with Americans may not be able to work up the cultural or greater frequency in the U.S. media, but the issue has not fiscal energy for another effort on the scale of Lyndon been received by the public with the fervency aroused in past Johnson’s Great Society, but more specific attention to the times of economic crisis. It may be that this era still awaits its plight of the poor by maintaining social lifelines and redou - Michael Harrington, Walker Evans or Dorothea Lange to bled efforts at job creation and retraining seem warranted. bring the issue more vividly before the public conscience. In 1986 President Reagan famously noted that the nation Combating poverty was a big issue in the 1960s and had declared war on poverty and “poverty won.” But that is endured, at least as a talking point, into the 1970s, when not exactly how it went, in fact. The nation enjoyed then, as deindustrialization ravaged the American working class. In it does now, a peace dividend generated by the War on the ensuing decades, however, poverty became the fault of Poverty that has prevented a return to the high levels of the poverty-stricken, too lazy or drug- and alcohol-addicted poverty last seen in the oft-presumed golden era of the to take personal responsibility and pull themselves up by 1950s. One thing is certain: defeat will always be a depend - those mythological bootstraps. Welfare reform and the able outcome if U.S. policymakers surrender the field with - boom time that began in the mid-90s knocked poverty off out firing a shot.

February 27, 2012 America 5 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY With Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, U.S. Bishops Say No to Accommodation President Barack Obama details the new position on contraception during a state - On Contraceptive Services ment at the White House on Feb. 10. he Obama administration announced a “common sense accommoda - tion,” seeking to end a public dispute with the U.S. Conference of TCatholic Bishops and others over new requirements for contraceptive services in health insurance plans. Under revised guidelines offered on Feb. 10, a religious exemption from those new requirements will still apply to church enti - ties such as parishes and dioceses. Nonprofit religious employers—universities, hospitals, social service providers—will no longer be required to offer contracep - tion, pay for it through insurance premiums or refer employees to contraception benefits outside their plans. A senior White House official said the administra - tion believes the changes reflect “a health care policy that accommodates religious liberty while protecting women.” “Whether you’re a teacher or a small-business woman or a nurse or a janitor,” President Obama said, announcing the policy modification at the White House, “no woman’s health should depend on who she is or where she works or how much money she makes. Every woman should be in control of the decisions Christian,” he said, “I cherish this right.” reach out and offer the woman contra - that affect her own health. Period.” Under the new plan, the president ceptive care free of charge, without co- But, the president said, his adminis - said, “If a woman’s employer is a char - pays and without hassles.” tration has been mindful of “another ity or a hospital that has a religious The president personally briefed principle at stake here—and that’s the objection to providing contraceptive Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan of principle of religious liberty, an inalien - services as part of their health plan, the New York, the president of the bishops’ able right that is enshrined in our insurance company—not the hospital, conference, on the policy change during Constitution. As a citizen and as a not the charity—will be required to a phone call on Feb. 10. The president

SYRIA With one million residents, Homs is Syria’s third-largest city. “I am appalled Carnage Continues in Homs by the Syrian government’s willful assault on Homs, and its use of artillery he United Nations and the “For too many months, we have and other heavy weaponry in what League of Arab States are watched this crisis deepen,” Ban told appear to be indiscriminate attacks on Tconsidering sending a joint journalists at U.N. headquarters, fol - civilian areas in the city,” said High observer mission to Syria to try to end lowing a closed-door Security Council Commissioner Navanethem Pillay. the crisis engulfing that Middle East briefing on conditions in Syria. “We On Feb. 4 Russia and China vetoed country, with U.N. Secretary General have seen escalating violence, brutal a draft resolution supported by the Ban Ki-moon warning on Feb. 9 that crackdowns and tremendous suffering Security Council’s 13 other members. recent attacks against civilians in the by the Syrian people.” The draft text had endorsed an Arab city of Homs were a bad omen. Ban According to local sources, the League plan to resolve the crisis. Ban reported that well over 5,000 people Syrian army has sharply increased the said the council’s failure to agree on have been killed as a result of a gov - use of tanks, helicopters, mortars, rock - collective action was “disastrous for the ernment crackdown since a pro- ets and artillery fire to attack civilian people of Syria. It has encouraged the democracy uprising began in March areas, the Office of the High Syrian government to step up its war last year. Commissioner for Human Rights said. on its own people,” he said. “I fear that

6 America February 27, 2012 conclusion. Noting that the revision part of the objecting employer’s plan, still retained the nationwide contra - financed in the same way as the rest of ception mandate, described as “unsup - the coverage offered by the objecting ported in the law” and “a grave moral employer.” concern,” a statement from the bishops The bishops pledged to “contin - said that “the only complete solution ue—with no less vigor, no less sense of to this religious liberty problem is for urgency—our efforts to correct this H.H.S. to rescind the mandate of problem through the other two these objectionable services.” branches of government.” The bishops argued that the revised Senior administration officials say language still lacked protections for the additional contraception services “key stakeholders,” which they now are cost-neutral, so no additional pre - argue should include not just Catholic mium is required to pay for them. institutional employers but essentially After announcing the policy revi - any employer who finds the mandated sion, the White House quickly circu - coverage morally objectionable, includ - lated a statement from Carol Keehan, ing self-insured religious employers; S.C., the president and chief executive religious and secular for-profit officer of the Catholic Health employers; secular nonprofit employ - Association, supporting the new posi - ers and religious insurers. The state - tion. “The framework developed has acknowledged that this policy adjust - ment also seemed to reject the presi - responded to the issues we identified ment may still not satisfy all critics. dent’s position that religious employ - that needed to be fixed,” said Sister After first suggesting on the morn - ers would not be put in the position of Keehan. “We are pleased and grateful ing of Feb. 10 that the president’s financing contraception coverage. that the religious liberty and con - “accommodation” represented a “first According to the statement: “In the science protection needs of so many step in the right direction,” the case where the employee and insurer ministries that serve our country were U.S.C.C.B. after further study of the agree to add the objectionable cover - appreciated enough that an early reso - proposal quickly came to a different age, that coverage is still provided as a lution of this issue was accomplished.” the appalling brutality we are witness - has no plans to close its operations in Syria have enjoyed great respect from ing in Homs, with heavy weapons fir - Damascus, the Syrian capital, and every side in the conflict.” ing into civilian neighborhoods, is a church officials grim harbinger of worse to come.” still hoped for a The secretary general asked, “How peaceful out - many deaths will it take to halt this come that pre - dangerous slide toward civil war and served order. sectarian strife?” “Within the As the government bombardment region, Syria is a of Homs entered its fifth day on Feb. model of reli - 9, most Christian families fled the city. gious tolerance, Some priests have decided to stay, even above all with as government forces intensified their respect to rela - strikes against the heart of the revolt tions between against President Bashar al-Assad, Christians and said the Vatican’s nuncio to Syria, Muslims,” he Archbishop Mario Zenari. said. “Till now, Archbishop Zenari said the Vatican Christians in Homes damaged by shelling in Homs, Syria.

February 27, 2012 America 7 SIGNS OF THE TIMES

Vatican Suit Dropped A federal court in Mississippi on Feb. NEWS BRIEFS 2 dismissed a 10-year-old lawsuit Archbishop Murilo Krieger of Salvador, accusing the Vatican of complicity in a Brazil, is mediating a military police officer scheme to bilk insurance companies strike that has caused havoc and left at least for more than $200 million. The state 95 people dead in Bahia State. • The Irish insurance commissioners of Mi- government has decided to cut special grants ssissippi, Tennessee, Missouri, to Irish families meant to cover the cost of Oklahoma and Arkansas had filed the first Communion and confirmation expens - lawsuit in 2002, charging the Vatican Police on strike in Brazil es, which “could include a white dress, veil, and Msgr. Emilio Colagiovanni of shoes and bag,” from 242 euros to 110 euros. racketeering and fraud. The commis - • In a debate on assisted dying at the Church of England Synod on sioners claimed that Monsignor Feb. 6, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, warned Colagiovanni and the Holy See had that legal moves to allow assisted suicide would be a “disaster” and aided financier Martin Frankel in pur - reduce English society’s attitude toward the sanctity of life. • The chasing small, ailing insurance compa - government does not have the competence or authority to “‘redefine’ nies, whose assets he then siphoned marriage or ‘expand’ its definition,” said Archbishop José H. Gómez off, leaving them unable to pay claims. of Los Angeles on Feb. 7, criticizing a court decision that overturned Jeffrey S. Lena, an attorney for the California’s Proposition 8 , a 2008 initiative forbidding same-sex Holy See, said the dismissal “was not marriage. • Students from groups affiliated with religious denomi - the result of any settlement agree - nations at Vanderbilt University protested the school’s new nondis - ment” and that the insurance commis - crimination policy , which requires that membership and leadership sioners had requested the court’s positions in any registered student organization be open to any action “of their own accord.” applicant. Anti-Poverty Efforts Should Continue programs that help low-income work - Italian journalists of two letters As they negotiate the details of the ers escape poverty and raise their chil - addressed to Pope Benedict XVI and Temporary Payroll Tax Cut dren in dignity.” Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican Continuation Act, members of secretary of state. Congress should find ways to continue Corruption Charges The letters, written by Archbishop unemployment benefits and reject Carlo Maria Viganò when he was the proposals to exclude children of immi - ‘Unfounded’ governorate’s secretary general, con - grant families from the Child Tax In an unusually public rebuke of a tained assertions based on “erroneous Credit, said Bishop Stephen E. Blaire high-ranking colleague, Vatican offi - evaluations” or “fears unsupported by of Stockton, Calif., chairman of the cials dismissed as baseless the accusa - proof,” the statement said. Archbishop Committee on Domestic Justice and tions of “corruption and abuse of Viganò’s letter to the pope, dated Human Development of the U.S. power” made in letters by the arch - March 27, 2011, lamented “so many Conference of Catholic Bishops. “The bishop who is now apostolic nuncio to situations of corruption and abuse of economy is still leaving too many peo - the United States. In a statement power long rooted in the various ple without work,” wrote Bishop Blaire released by the Vatican on Feb. 4, departments” of the governorate and in a letter to Congress on Feb. 9. Cardinal-designate Giuseppe Bertello warned that the archbishop’s removal “When the economy fails to generate and Cardinal Giovanni Lajolo, the cur - “would provoke profound confusion sufficient jobs, there is a moral obliga - rent and immediate past presidents of and dejection” among all those sup - tion to help protect the life and digni - the Governorate of Vatican City State, porting his efforts at reform. ty of unemployed workers and their described as a “cause of great sadness” families. We also must protect those the recent “unlawful publication” by From CNS and other sources.

8 America February 27, 2012 JOHN J. D I IULIO JR.

A Broken System o other democracy in the holds the office of Judge of the more negative and fosters ever deeper world has anything even Philadelphia Traffic Court. In 2011 political polarization. Nvaguely resembling the presi - she won that post with 125,434 votes. Our present-day presidential selec - dential selection process that the So we start our presidential selec - tion process reflects the perverse and United States has developed over the tion sweepstakes by expending ungod - unintended byproducts of successive last four decades. ly amounts of money and media time attempts to reform and improve it. Lucky for them, because American on two small-state contests that we That began with well-meaning democracy’s existing presidential selec - know will be won with vote totals that changes in each party’s rules that pre - tion process is a civic and moral train could not even get you elected to vented any candidate from doing what, wreck. down-ballot offices in any big city. for example, Democratic Vice As of this writing, with a Then we move on to the Nevada President Hubert Humphrey did in Democratic incumbent cruising to a caucuses (prior to the 1968, namely, win a second nomination, we are four states Nevada primary) and, of party’s presidential into the 2012 Republican presidential course, South Carolina, a Our nomination without selection season. Per usual, the season mid-sized state with a pri - presidential running in and winning started in earnest with the Iowa cau - mary electorate that is not a single presidential pri - cuses. In Iowa, Rick Santorum and exactly a demographic and selection mary. In both parties, Mitt Romney beat Ron Paul but lost ideological cross-section of process is a the party bosses exited, to Ron Donatucci. the country. Though the and the pollsters and You are probably wondering: Ron television talking heads civic and the campaign consul - Paul is the libertarian congressman feign suspense, in South moral train tants and hyper- from Texas, but who is Ron Carolina the most conser - ideological activists Donatucci? vative major candidate wreck. entered. The process Donatucci is Philadelphia’s Register unfailingly wins (as pushed the Republicans of Wills. In 2011, he was elected to Gingrich did this year) or comes in a ever farther to the right and the that office with 121,374 votes. In the close second (as Mike Huckabee did Democratic Party ever farther to the 2011 Iowa caucuses, the six behind John McCain in 2008). left. Republican presidential contenders— Finally, it’s four down and only 46 I see no solution, but I would Santorum, Romney and Paul, plus more to go, with Florida, a big state favor having a single “Super-Super Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry and that tests each candidate’s presidential Tuesday” national primary that per - Michelle Bachmann—received a com - timber in two ways. First, does he or mits equal participation by all states bined total of 114,446 votes. she have what it takes to spend—or to and presents a fair compromise with Next up, as always, was New have ostensibly independent “super the increased number of delegates Hampshire. There Romney led the PACs” spend—untold millions of that larger states send to the national pack with 95,669 votes. If you add that dollars on hyper-negative ads that tear conventions, much like the compro - to the nearly 30,000 votes Romney got remaining opponents to pieces? (And mises during the original constitu - in Iowa, the Republican presidential here, I mean literally untold, since the tional convention. Among other frontrunner would outpoll Donatucci, super PACs need not report their arguable drawbacks, that one-day but he would still be in a virtual dead sources until much later.) And sec - drama would favor candidates with heat with Christine Solomon. She ond, can he or she pander shamelessly high name recognition and put at a to Floridians age 65 and older? disadvantage lesser-known candidates Thereafter, the bizarre process by within each party. But it would, I JOHN J. DIIULIO JR. is the co-author of which we pick people to compete for believe, be better than the present sys - American Government: Institutions and Policies (2012) and other books on politics, the presidency only goes on longer, tem, and I have yet to hear any better religion and public administration. gets ever more expensive, becomes ever ideas.

February 27, 2012 America 9

A NEW CATHOLIC WONDERS HOW TO BE PRO -LIFE . Peer Pressure BY RONNIE D. RUBIT

s a Christian only recently received into the Catholic Church, I am frequently invited by other parishioners to take part in pro-life activities. I have been asked to participate in pro-life rallies, orga - nized protests in front of local Planned Parenthood clinics and processions through the city in “marches for life.” Before I even Acompleted the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults, I was pressured to lend my signature to pro-life petitions and solicited to join the Respect Life committee. Often during discussion forums with other Catholics, the topic turned to abor - tion, a subject that superseded dialogue on all other important issues. The con - stant barrage of invitations to such ambitious activism was overwhelming—a lit - tle too much too soon. At that time in my Catholic journey, I wanted to focus exclusively on personal piety and devotion to fundamental church teaching, history and Christology. There would be time for social action later. My pre-Catholic religious life was deeply influenced in adolescence by Southern Baptist theology and conservative Bible teaching. While in college, I became a member of the Churches of Christ, a loving and rewarding affiliation. The Churches of Christ is an extremely conservative denomination, however, so much so that mechanical instruments are not allowed in the worship services, and E N i women have few outlets for expression and service. The religious instruction z a g a included staunch opposition to abortion from the lectern. m a c i I was affiliated with the Churches of Christ for almost 20 years. During these r E m

a decades, I took part in evangelical and neoconservative politics in opposition to

: o t

o perceived “liberal” threats to Christian culture, like that embodied in Roe v. Wade, h p

E the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court decision. In defense against purported threats to t i s o p our Judeo-Christian way of life, I was an enthusiastic soldier in the “culture wars.” m o c In short, I can hardly be labeled “soft” on abortion.

RONNIE D. RUBIT, a former high school teacher, lives in Houston, Tex., where he is a parishioner of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart.

February 27, 2012 America 11 Pro-Life Activism and Piety experience. I refuse to have my “tires kicked” to prove my Let me be clear: my visceral reaction to abortion is an Catholic bona fides, and I place no such burden of proof on emphatic no. Nevertheless, my personal opposition to the anyone else. The act of inducing shame to persuade someone procedure is not what defines my virtue as a Christian. This to take part in a pro-life rally bears a strong resemblance to is something that concerns me about my Catholic peers. It the practice in late antiquity of mandatory annual devotions seems from where I sit (literally, in a wheelchair), that for to the local Roman deity—a public observance to which many devoted Catholics and Protestants alike, the authen - early Christians objected. Many embraced martyrdom in an ticity of a religious com - effort to end it. mitment is measured by Are Catholics now the decibel level of one’s For many, the authenticity of a required to produce public outrage over abortion. affidavits to verify their I often get the impres - religious commitment is profession of faith? If so, sion that abortion politics measured by the decibel level of must it address only the permeates the religious issue of abortion? Are devotion of many—and one’s outrage over abortion. depositions necessary to shame on anyone who confirm my private fasting does not share their enthu - and almsgiving? Often siasm for activism in pro-life causes. Unfortunately, many peer pressure to engage in activism veils a particular political young people and new Catholics are subjected to an unwel - ideology. The holy Roman Catholic Church is no place for come kind of peer pressure to demonstrate their commit - political factions or proselytizing for either political party. ment as a Christian. For some, a willingness to join in the street activism against abortion is considered a litmus test A Distortion of Values? for genuine Christian morality. In my short time as a Catholic, I have never been called The nonconformist in me refuses to allow anyone to char - upon to assemble on a cold Saturday morning to join in the acterize me or scrutinize the legitimacy of my Christian distribution of blankets and hot soup with sandwiches to the homeless; I have never been urged to participate in weekend home repairs and yard cleaning for any disabled Chaplain for Ministry Center and elderly widows in the parish. Maybe that is because it The Poor Handmaids of Jesus takes more of a commitment to push a lawn mower than to Christ, also known as the hold up a sign. Ancilla Domini Sisters, are This distortion of values among comfortable American seeking a chaplain, a Roman Catholics is an aspect of my new faith that I find distressing. Catholic priest, to begin min - On the surface, it strikes me as superficial and self-righ - istry in 2012 at their Motherhouse located on the beau - teous. I understand a desire not to stand idly by in the face tiful grounds of the PHJC Ministry Center in of injustice, but I am concerned that many of my co-reli - Donaldson, Indiana, located 90 miles southeast of gionists channel their religious impulses more toward how Chicago and 35 miles southwest of South Bend, they are publicly perceived and less toward personal piety. Indiana. (See our website for more information at: I once heard, on a major cable television network, testi - http://www.poorhandmaids.org ) mony from a well-known Washington, D.C., journalist and A focus of the ministry is sacramental, but since the political pundit, who proudly stated that his personal reli - campus includes a variety of ministries including a two- gious renewal was informed by his late pro-life activism. year liberal arts college and a nursing home, it is impor - tant for the chaplain to be comfortable ministering to While I applaud his newfound religious zeal, I believe faith people of all ages, personalities, and faiths, with a spe - should spring from a desire to know God through the fun - cial attentiveness to the spiritual needs of the elderly. damental teachings of Christ and the apostles, not from Benefits include on-campus housing, meals, dioce - political impulses or a single act of merit. san stipend, paid vacation, health insurance and more. True, our Scriptures and faith do teach that murder is Interested Candidates should submit a completed sin. And the Didache, a widely circulated second-century resumé and cover letter to: Sr. Marlene Ann Lama, Christian document, does specifically warn against aborting PHJC, Provincial Office, P.O. Box 1, Donaldson, a fetus. But it is filled with additional wisdom and instruc - Indiana 46513, Phone: 574-935-1730, Email: tion: it charges Christians with the duties to keep the com - [email protected] mandments and participate in the Eucharist. It calls them to engage in fasting and prayer, charity, virtuous behavior, car -

12 America February 27, 2012 ing for the afflicted and a host of other injunctions compat - noble Catholic tradition. It is my goal to find my rightful ible with the New Testament. place in the church and live out my faith profession by piety, service to society and the practice of good works—works Joining a Great Tradition that, the Scriptures teach, “God has prepared for us to walk My disquiet about pro-life activism is not meant to indict the in” (Eph 2:10). Catholic Church, of which I am now a part. On the contrary, That activity may include working toward a solution to the one of the features that drew me to this church is its lumi - problem of abortion; but this will be a deliberate act of con - nous history of social activism, from building homes and science on my part, not a surrender to the coercion of other schools for orphans to openly supporting the civil rights parishioners. Those who confess faith in Christ must recon - movement to opposition to unjust wars and political oppres - cile church teaching and their own conscience to determine sion. The lives of the saints down through the ages speak their inclination to activity or inactivity with respect to the loudly and help to shine the light of understanding on ser - practice of true religion. vice. American Catholic luminaries also Since the pontificate of John Paul II, I inspire me. Mother Katharine Drexel used ON THE WEB witnessed as an outsider a revival in the her considerable fortune to finance over 60 A discussion of pro-life ministry. American Catholic community. Catholics schools and missions for poor African- facebook.com/americamag in the United States, unlike many else - Americans and American Indians around where in the world, have the freedom and the country. Henriette DeLille devoted her life to nursing the means to minister to the needs of the afflicted. To limit care and built homes and schools for orphans in Louisiana. ourselves and to focus so much energy on the single issue of The exemplary devotion of saints like these is not singular or abortion not only diminishes our efforts but also sets a poor exclusionary; it testifies to the all-inclusive love of Christ for precedent for new converts. Many of them are eager to the poor and the hungry, the orphan and the widow, the pris - engage their lives in service to God, humankind and local oner and the exploited, the unborn and the immigrant. parish life. We ought not discourage their spiritual progress The church’s many worldwide charities have proved a through excessive attention to one particular evil. Let’s show powerful attraction; their importance to my conversion can - them and teach them to heal “all manner of sickness” in the not be overstated. I am very proud to be a part now of that human condition. A

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February 27, 2012 America 13 Out of Palestine Solidarity with a displaced people BY ELIZABETH G. BURR

ecently I asked Dominique Najjar, a Palestinian Indigenous Christians have lived in Palestine since the Christian who lives with his wife and children origins of Christianity about 2,000 years ago. Over the cen - in Minneapolis, why so many Palestinians are turies other Christians immigrated to Palestine. Palestinian leaving Palestine. He told me the story of how Christians comprised at least 15 percent of the Palestinian Rhe and two of his three brothers, all aspiring professionals, population in the late 19th century, under Ottoman Muslim immigrated to the United States from East Jerusalem out of rule, and about 7.5 percent by 1944, in the final years of the “economic necessity,” starting in the early 1970s. “My par - British Mandate. During the 1948 war, which resulted in ents needed support,” he said, explaining that economic the establishment of the State of Israel in much of historic advancement was impossible under Israeli control. This Palestine, more than a third of Palestinian Christians were took place within the first decade of the Israeli military among the 750,000 to 800,000 refugees forced to flee their occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem and homes in Palestine. The Israeli historian Ilan Pappé has the Gaza Strip, which began after the 1967 war and is ille - described Israel’s “war of independence,” which Palestinians gal under international law. call the nakba (catastrophe), as “the ethnic cleansing of But there is more to Mr. Najjar’s story. He and one of his Palestine” in his book by that title published in 2006. brothers did not intend to emigrate permanently from their homeland. After they had moved to the United States, how - The Lydda Death March ever, Israel revoked their Jerusalem residency status. Now Audeh Rantisi, a Palestinian Christian, has written in The they are given 90-day tourist visas when they return to their Link, a journal published by Americans for Middle East hometown, where their 89-year-old mother lives alone. Understanding, about his family’s expulsion from Lydda, Since none of her seven adult children enjoys residency sta - near Tel Aviv, in July 1948, along with that of thousands of tus in Jerusalem any longer, none can do more than visit her. other residents. An 11-year-old at the time, Rantisi wit - She receives daily “compassion and attention” from her nessed: an infant being crushed to death by a cart after his Muslim neighbors next door. Najjar remarked that the revo - mother lost hold of him, an Israeli soldier shooting to death cation of his residency status is “all part of the Israeli effort a newly married young man who would not hand over his to minimize the number of non-Jews in Jerusalem.” money, people dying of thirst and many more horrors. He It is difficult for citizens of other countries to appreciate reports that “scores of women miscarried, their babies left for what the occupation means for Palestinians who are not cit - jackals to eat.” On the fourth day of the “Lydda death march,” izens of the country that rules them (unlike Israeli his 13-member family reached Ramallah, in the West Bank, Palestinians who live in the recognized State of Israel). A “carrying nothing but the clothes we wore.” His father also reading of the 30 articles of the United Nations’ Universal took with him the key to their house. Generations of the Declaration of Human Rights (1948) reveals that very few of Rantisi family had lived in Lydda for some 1,600 years. these rights are applied to occupied Palestinians. Directly Mr. Pappé is not alone among scholars who have identi - relevant to Mr. Najjar’s story, for example, Article 13 (2) fied a Zionist ideology of exclusion as the engine driving the states, “Everyone has the right to leave any country, includ - expulsion of Palestinians in 1948 or who have interpreted ing his own, and to return to his country.” People of con - Israeli policy since then as a continuing campaign of ethnic science are faced with the oppression of an indigenous pop - cleansing. By 2011 the Israeli occupation of the West Bank ulation in their own homeland, and Christians worldwide and Gaza Strip had reached its 44th year. In the West Bank, must confront the truth that Palestinian Christians are including East Jerusalem, the occupation has brought the walking down a long Via Dolorosa from which, without construction of scores of “settlements” in violation of the international intervention, the only exit is exile. Fourth Geneva Convention, which currently house at least half a million Israeli settlers. Five years ago Israel had already expropriated 87 percent of East Jerusalem and 75 ELIZABETH G. BURR, who teaches part-time at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minn, has been concerned with the Israel- percent of the West Bank for settlements, parks and mili - Palestine issue for more than 40 years. tary areas. Thus less and less Palestinian land is available for

14 America February 27, 2012 A Christian Palestinian woman leaves the Erez checkpoint in the northern Gaza Strip on Dec. 22 on her way to Bethlehem in the West Bank.

Palestinian housing, agriculture or other uses. Human when I interviewed the Christian Palestinian secretary gen - rights abuses of Palestinians abound under the occupation, eral of the East Jerusalem Y.W.C.A. in June 2009, she said which appears designed to make their lives so unbearable that relations between Palestinian Muslims and Christians that they will “voluntarily” leave. have been and remain largely positive. In her view “religious The emigration of Palestinian Christians from the occu - extremism” has been fostered by the environment of stress, pied territories to the West since 1967 has also reduced chaos and conflict produced by the Israeli occupation. their number to the point where Christians currently Indeed, there is a long history of good relations between account for less than 2 percent of the Palestinian population Palestinian Muslims and Christians. Palestinians of both under occupation. And the rate of population growth for faiths experienced the catastrophe of 1948 together, and Palestinian Christians in the West Bank amounts to just since 1967 those in the West Bank and Gaza have experi - half of their emigration rate. Without a stabilization or enced the catastrophe of the Israeli occupation together. reversal of the net decline, the extinction of Palestinian Christians in the territories is conceivable. Even in 2006 ‘Pull’ and ‘Push’ Factors only about 50,000 Palestinian Christians were living in the Palestinian Christians have tended to be well educated, rel - West Bank and Gaza. atively advantaged economically and more What explains the ongoing exodus of ON THE WEB likely than their Muslim counterparts to Christians from Palestine? Some A slideshow of have contacts in the West. Those could be attempts at an explanation are misleading. Palestinian Christian life. considered “pull” factors behind the In line with the Islamophobia notable in americamagazine.org/slideshow Palestinian Christian exodus. The “push” Europe and in the United States, Israeli factors are the economic, political and

propaganda points to tension and conflict with Palestinian social consequences of the Israeli occupation, with its s r E t

Muslims, who comprise more than 98 percent of the “apartheid wall,” checkpoints and segregated road system; its u E r /

Palestinian population under occupation, as the key reason ever-expanding settlements, destruction of Palestinian agri - s N c

: for Palestinian Christian emigration. Israel has long encour - culture and demolition of Palestinian homes; its lawless, o t o h aged political and religious division among Palestinians. Yet weapon-toting settlers; and its incarceration, with systemat - p

February 27, 2012 America 15 ic torture, of thousands of Palestinians. itary incursions, divided from their congregations by the A 2006 survey of Palestinian Christians conducted by wall, and exposed to dilapidation.” Bethlehem’s Church of the Palestinian Christian peace organization Sabeel con - the Nativity suffered physical damage during the Israeli firms the decisive influence of these “push” factors. Romell incursion and siege of 2002. The wall now encircles Soudah, a faculty member in business administration at Bethlehem, separating it from nearby Jerusalem; residents Bethlehem University, a Catholic institution, writes that of Bethlehem are prevented from entering Jerusalem and “the continuous confiscation of land...coupled with restric - vice versa. A majority of Bethlehem’s Christians hold Israel tions on mobility and access, give the impression that peo - responsible for the departure of record numbers of ple are living in a cage, dehumanized, with little hope for Palestinian Christians from their city. freedom and normal living. This situation...is the primary Yet Western Christians often fail to recognize the imper - factor…forcing Christian Palestinians to leave.” These iled existence of their Palestinian co-religionists. Moreover, Israeli actions, plus water confiscation and economic stran - there are millions of Christian Zionists whose interpreta - gulation, which drive unemployment and poverty levels tion of New Testament prophecies allies them with Israeli upward, are seen as calculated means of emptying the land Zionism and against the Christians of Palestine. They of Palestinians. Thus Christian Palestinian emigration is imagine that there is serious division between Palestinian the most visible effect of Israel’s deliberate, if gradual, ethnic Muslims and Christians, whereas the far more prevalent cleansing of the Palestinian population. tension is between Palestinian Christians and some Israeli Jews (settlers, military and government leaders or those who Why Care? represent them). The continued presence of Palestinian Why should Americans care if Palestinian Christians in the Christians in Palestine offsets the misperception that the West Bank are leaving their homeland twice as fast as their “Israeli-Palestinian conflict” is really about religion—a con - population there is growing? The erasure of native flict between Muslims and Jews, rather than one about land, Christians from Palestine should be unthinkable. Palestine human rights and international law. is where Christianity originated, and Palestinian Christians A Palestinian Christian friend wrote to me recently have a unique status in the worldwide Christian communi - regarding the typical pattern of Muslims and Christians ty. Americans should be outraged that U.S. policy, but - working together cooperatively and harmoniously within tressed by generous funding from their tax dollars, makes Palestinian institutions and organizations. Among the possible the Israeli occupation and its discriminatory poli - examples she mentioned is the Rawdat El-Zuhur (Garden cies. of Flowers) elementary school in East Jerusalem, which has These policies include a campaign to revoke the time- a Christian principal, a Muslim accountant, a mixed teach - honored tax-exempt status of Christian churches and other ing staff and a mixed student body. Rawdat El-Zuhur, she Christian institutions, like the Lutheran Augusta Victoria wrote, “serves the community irrespective of [the members’] Hospital on the Mount of Olives, and prohibition of access faith.” Likewise at Birzeit University, north of Ramallah, the to holy sites (for example, barring West Bank Christians president is Muslim and the chairman of the board is from visiting the Holy Sepulcher, traditionally regarded as Christian; the board members are mixed, as are the staff and the burial place of Jesus, in Jerusalem’s Old City). Orthodox the student body. Jewish harassment of Christian clergy in the Old City is To their credit, Pope Benedict XVI and his predecessor, commonplace. Hanan Chehata, a journalist, reports that Pope John Paul II, are prominent among church leaders “numerous churches have been destroyed during Israeli mil - who have advocated worldwide Christian solidarity with Palestinian Christians. Informed

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16 America February 27, 2012 FAITH IN FOCUS Children of God Raising faithful Catholics in an imperfect church BY ELIZABETH KIRKLAND CAHILL

here is a well-known (and rial arguments (the definition of a was a wonderful embodiment of the probably apocryphal) saying nanosecond is the amount of time it church’s universality. T attributed to St. Francis of takes my oldest son’s shirt to be Such regular churchgoing does not Assisi: “Proclaim the Gospel always. If untucked when Mass is over) and feel glamorous or heroic. It does not necessary, use words.” It is an apt qualify us for sainthood or summation of how my husband even a parenting award. and I have approached the Rather, it demonstrates in transmission of faith to our four concrete terms that commit - children, who now range in age ment is important even, or from 11 to 19. Although I perhaps especially, when would like to say we had a mas - practicing the faith seems ter plan, it is not so. We never boring. Some things you just sat down and mapped out a keep doing, even when you strategy. We have just tried to would rather be doing some - live lives of faith as well as we thing else, because that is could, which means often part of the deal. imperfectly, and hope that our Involvement. This entails witness rubs off. deepening the commitment As I look back over the past and investing time and ener - two decades, I can identify four gy. In our current parish, I practices we have engaged in to have given a series of talks on proclaim the Gospel within our Scripture and with my hus - own little domestic church. band have lent support to Constancy. Meal after meal, both the music program and we begin with grace. Night after various building projects. night, we sit on the side of the In our last parish, I was bed and say prayers (until the both a eucharistic minister inevitable moment, usually and a lector (and got regular somewhere around the dawn of critiques on the latter: the teenage years, when we are “Mom, you were too quiet” gently told: “Mom, Dad, I think or “Mom, good job”). I estab - I’ll say prayers by myself”). Perhaps grousing about the length of the homi - lished a Christmas pageant and found - most important, Sunday after Sunday ly, but somehow, complaints notwith - ed a Bible study group, both of which we go to Mass. It is not optional; we go standing, we persevere. We have had to are going strong nearly 15 years on. always and everywhere, whether the juggle Mass times to accommodate Perhaps most important, for several roads are icy or it is 99 degrees outside travel schedules, sports events, even years (until we moved away) I took or people are tired. sleepovers, but somehow we have Communion each Sunday to a group Of course there are the usual sarto - managed to keep everyone going. Even of older Catholics in a nearby assisted- a d when we are traveling during a vaca - living facility. My children almost i m a l a

tion, we find a church; this summer always accompanied me. They prayed s

ELIZABETH KIRKLAND CAHILL , co-author, N a d

my children heard Masses on succes - with us, stood by quietly while I dis - with Joseph Papp, of Shakespeare Alive!, is : t r a 2010 graduate of the Yale Divinity School. sive Sundays in French and German. It tributed Communion, then handed a

February 27, 2012 America 17 out bulletins and chatted with the Jesuits and quickly learned otherwise. with statements made in a homily. small, predominantly female congrega - Since that time, and throughout my Although I try to offer a balanced view, tion. We visited the rooms of those continuing spiritual journey, I have I will also be forthright about how who could not make it downstairs for been irresistibly drawn toward engage - important I think it is for priests and the group Communion service. The ment with ecclesiological, theological bishops, as well as the rest of us, to fol - kids said hello to Camilla, who wept and spiritual questions. My kids low the Gospel. easily and often; happily visited watched me pursue deeper under - I love the Catholic faith. When I Frances, who was liberal with the standing of these during the four years was confirmed as a Catholic, I felt I candy; and enjoyed seeing kind I recently spent earning a master’s was joining in on a great starry conver - Mildred, who loved to read. They saw degree at the Yale Divinity School. sation that started in the early church tired, old eyes light up when they They know that I think hard about and has been carried on by the likes of entered the room on a Sunday morn - issues of church and faith. They expect Augustine, Teresa of Ávila and ing. And they witnessed the profound that I will query them over Sunday Thomas Merton. But I do not always gratitude of these older Catholics both lunch about the Gospel reading or love the actions of the institutional for the human connection with us and mention a prayer that especially struck church. I do not pretend to my kids for the gift of Christ in Communion. me. And while they may roll their eyes that I agree with the church’s contin - Intellectual engagement. Although when I launch another screed about ued opposition to women’s ordination embarrassing to admit, as a one-time the role of the laity, I hope they are get - or that I am not angry about the con - Episcopalian who converted to ting the subliminal message that such tinued obfuscation surrounding the Catholicism in her mid-30s, I was questions matter. sexual abuse scandal. I want them to once something of an intellectual-reli - Honesty. As a corollary to intellec - engage with these issues, not just gious snob, assuming that Catholics tual engagement, I share my views on shrug their shoulders and drift away. did not think for themselves but just matters ranging from liturgy to the mindlessly obeyed whatever Rome role of women. I have been known to My Children’s Church said. Then I became friends with a few explain, expand upon or take issue So far, my children h ave not only toed

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18 America February 27, 2012 the line but appear to be Christ’s own. skeptic. Maybe one of them will even my children’s generation. Is the great My two older children have kept up be a saint. I simply have no idea, and beacon still going to be shining if my regular Mass attendance even while after nearly 20 years of parenting, I kids need to be led back home from going to an Episcopal boarding school. have learned enough to know that I the wilderness? I hope so, I pray so. I The younger two have faithfully gone have no real control over it. I suspect will do what I can to help. to Mass with us, received the age- that more than one of them will end I remember talking to an Episcopal appropriate sacraments and tucked in up at some point in a spiritual wilder - priest who was a friend and mentor to their shirts. ness as they go through the process of me during my desert period, afflicted But my oldest child is off to college making their faith their own. I pray with true spiritual anomie. I finally this fall, and I am newly aware of the that they will find their way back. mustered up the courage to confess to contingency built into the raising of After all, I did my time in the desert in him that I was not sure God existed. children. Like all parents, I do not my early 20s, and it ultimately led me This wise fellow replied with a smile, know which of my efforts will actually to Catholicism. So I can be patient if “That’s okay; he doesn’t mind.” With pay off, how many of my lessons will they wander. this gentle reply he conveyed to me stick, whether my kids will resent me My concern as the century wears on that doubt was permissible while also for the tucked-in shirts or thank me is that the church may be losing its reassuring me that it lacked any actual for instilling habits of faithfulness. identity as the Promised Land. Its own external destructive power. My strug - How can we predict which aspects of lack of internal justice (regarding the gling faith did not mean that God was their upbringing our children will treatment of women, among other dead. I think about that comment now remember, which they will jettison? things), its disproportionate focus on as I watch what is happening in the My expectation, based on experi - what a late friend of mind called church and try to imagine what the ence from my own life, is that each one “pelvic orthodoxy” and the encroach - church of my children’s future will of my kids will journey forward from ing clericalism that can strain relation - look like. I trust that the Holy Spirit, the same starting point on a unique ships between pulpit and pew are operating at a level far above my own and different path. One of them may among the factors that may render the worries, is at work in ways that tran - turn out to be more of a mystic, one a church either irrelevant or repellant to scend human thought. A

February 27, 2012 America 19 BOOKS &CULTURE

FILM | ROBERT E. LAUDER (1930), Edward G. Robinson’s charac - ter might cry out while dying, “Mother HIS CATHOLIC CONSCIENCE of God, is this the end of Rico?” or James Cagney’s might have a conver - Sin and grace in the work of Martin Scorsese sion experience as he approaches the n the opening moments of Martin the distinguished director’s career. electric chair in “Angels With Dirty Scorsese’s HBO documentary I remember well my first experi - Faces” (1938). But these were isolated I “George Harrison: Living in a ence of a Scorsese film; it was the third religious moments rather than exam - Material World,” there is a brief but one he directed, “Mean Streets” ples of criminal consciences caught in important montage. Scorsese uses a (1973). Though at the Catholic mys - shot from a home movie in which the the time I was tery. former Beatles’ lead guitarist, as an unable to articulate ON THE WEB The “Godfather” A review of a new play on films make it clear infant, is being baptized a Catholic; he clearly what struck St. Catherine of Siena. follows it with a shot of World War II me about it, I americamagazine.org/culture that the Italian fighter planes flying over Europe. The understood that I Mafia leaders were montage, a revealing contrast of sacred was having a special not religious believ - and profane, the holy and the violent, cinematic experience. Never had I seen ers. Recall the powerful baptism scene vividly depicts Harrison’s essential a film that presented such a unique at the end of “The Godfather” (1972) quest: how to be spiritual in a material mixture of Catholicism and crime. In a in which Michael Corleone (Al world. The montage also summarizes gangster movie like “Little Caesar” Pacino) claims to reject Satan and sin s i B r o c / o t o h p a m E N i c

© Martin Scorsese, far right, directs Cesare Danova, left, and Harvey Keitel during the filming of “Mean Streets.”

20 America February 27, 2012 while at that very moment his hench - to priesthood disappeared, or was for belief. In Conversations with men are committing murders he has transformed, when he entered New Scorsese, Schickel wrote: personally ordered. And while in “The York University and studied film. Road to Perdition” (2002) the Irish There he transferred his passion for But just as the kind of violence Mafia members (Tom Hanks and Paul the priesthood to filmmaking, as he he observed as a kid is present in Newman) are believing Catholics, noted in a book of interviews called Do his movies, so are his youthful their faith does not interfere with their You Believe? “I became a director in longings for belief. It’s obvious, criminal lives. order to express my whole self, and of course, in pictures like In Scorcese’s “Mean Streets,” how - also my relationship with religion, “Kundun.” But there are hints of ever, the small-time hoodlum, Charlie which is crucial,” he said. His films those aspirations, a longing for (Harvey Keitel), is tortured by his proclaim a kind of gospel, though they some kind of transcendence, or, Catholic conscience. In the film’s open - are anything but preachy. at the least, relief from reality’s ing line he expresses the central reli - The film critic Richard Schickel, harsher limits, in so many of his gious credo of just about every after spending many hours talking secular films. It’s obvious in such Scorsese film: “You don’t make up for with Scorsese, confessed almost apolo - early films as “Mean Streets,” less your sins in church. You do it in the getically that he had to comment on so in films like “The King of streets.” In Peter Occhiogrosso’s oral Scorsese’s spirituality because in every Comedy,” “Goodfellas” and “The history Once a Catholic, Scorsese com - film of his there are traces of yearning Age of Innocence.” But in one ments:

The first, most important film to me was “Mean Streets,” which The Physics of Attention had the…theme: How do you lead a good life, a good, moral, ethical life, when everything First comes the sitting. You should be relaxed around you works the absolutely but comfortably straight as you align opposite way?... That’s why the your head and torso, shoulders, neck and spine, opening line is “You don’t make up for your sins in church. You your legs right-angled: soles are roots, feet flexed. do it in the streets”.... You gotta In this position you will find your head live amongst the people and change life that way or help peo - afloat, not heavy. Rest there. Now begin ple reach salvation in the street, attending to your breathing, out—and in— through day-to-day contact, the street noise there but filtered, edited. meeting by meeting. “In the street” could mean Hollywood, Quiet the voice that asks: That’s all? Just sitting? you know what I’m saying? It’s Just being there and breathing? Breathe. Align like a religious vocation. your body with the earth, your flitting mind A Filmmaking Passion with all that flies, and welcome, in the One An asthmatic child, not physically in whom you live and move and have your being, strong, growing up in a rough section of New York’s Little Italy and exposed things as they are: this chair, this you, this time. to both small- and big-time hoodlums, Scorsese found refuge in two places, MARY O’CONNOR each within walking distance of his family’s crowded apartment: Old St. Patrick’s church and the local movie MARY O’CONNOR, R.S.M ., has taught literature and writing house. From grammar school through in the San Francisco Bay Area and in South Dakota. She now high school, one year of which he conducts writing retreats. spent in a minor seminary, Marty wanted to be a priest. But his vocation

February 27, 2012 America 21 form or another, in small ways from spotting the presence of grace or film, “Hugo,” a children’s story turned and large, his concern with mat - the appearance of transcendence. I am into a visually stunning and cinemati - ters of belief is nearly always pre - not alone. After viewing Scorsese’s cally brilliant hymn to the process of sent in his work. first film, “Who’s That Knocking at making movies. His list of future pro - My Door” (1967), his teacher at jects includes the filming of Shusako Every Scorsese film is deeply per - N.Y.U., Haig Manoogian, summed up Endo’s Silence, a novel about the perse - sonal. The kid from Little Italy is pre - the film, “Too much Good Friday, not cution of Jesuits in Japan. While I have senting his outlook on life, his deepest enough Easter Sunday.” That is an no doubt that his cinematic skill will concerns and values. In “Kundun,” a excellent criticism, not only of the first searingly portray the torture inflicted film about the life of the Dalai Lama, film, but of the corpus of Scorsese’s on the Jesuits, I am not sure how effec - Marty the moralist is looking at the work. The dimension of transcen - tively he will depict their faith. possibility of living a completely spiri - dence is present, but it is not expressed If Scorsese could see in the world tual life in a material world, the same as powerfully as is the sin-stained more powerful evidence of Easter problem, I surmise, that moved him 30 “material world.” Sunday than of Good Friday, or if St. years later to make a film about In interviews Scorsese leaves the Paul’s proclamation that “where sin George Harrison. When asked why he impression that he thinks of himself as did abound, grace does more abound” wanted to make “The Last excommunicated because of his could color his conscience more, this Temptation of Christ” (1988), divorces and no longer receives the exceptionally gifted artist might create Scorsese replied, “Because I want to sacraments. Yet his work illustrates the films even greater than those he know Jesus better.” saying, “It is easier to get the Catholic already has made. Might he then pro - In “Raging Bull” (1980) the boxer out of the church than it is to get the duce the masterpiece that so far has Jake LaMotta (Robert De Niro) is church out of the Catholic.” The inter - eluded him? I cannot help but wonder. depicted as a masochistic self-hater action between artistic vision, religious who almost wants to be beaten up in faith and conscience is deeply mysteri - REV. ROBERT E. LAUDER is professor of phi - the ring because of the bad things he ous. losophy at St. John’s University in New York. His most recent book is Love and Hope: has done. Referring to a line from Anyone who doubts Scorsese’s Pope Benedict’s Spirituality of “The Diary of a Country Priest,” that enormous skills should see his latest Communion (Resurrection Press). God is not a torturer, Scorsese sees Jake’s eventual redemption in the boxer’s affirmation of his humanity: BOOKS | BILL WILLIAMS “I’m not an animal. I’m still human. I’m still human.” LOSING QUINTANA In “The King of Comedy” (1987), Scorsese attacks the shallowness of BLUE NIGHTS celebrity culture. He bluntly summed By Joan Didion up “The Color of Money” (1986) to Knopf. 208p $25 Schickel in this way: “I wanted it to be a story of an older person who corrupts Several years ago Joan Didion wrote a young person, like a serpent in the about the death of her husband, the garden of innocence.” And in Do You novelist John Gregory Dunne, in The Believe?, Scorsese describes a character Year of Magical Thinking . But before in “The Age of Innocence” (1993), the book was published, the couple’s Ellen Olenska (Michelle Pfeiffer), as “a 39-year-old adopted daughter, woman on whom a world of Pharisees Quintana Roo, also died. has placed a crown of thorns.” In her new book, Blue Nights , Victorian society is crucifying her. Didion ponders Quintana’s life and death in spare prose that is at once Not Enough Easter? insightful, depressing and random. For years the violence in such Scorsese The book is as much a meditation on films as “Goodfellas,” “Casino” (1991), the author’s own fear of aging and ill - “The Gangs of New York” (2002) and ness as it is a lament about the loss of “The Departed” (2006) prevented me an only child.

22 America February 27, 2012 th 6 Annual Spirituality Day April 14, 2012 “Let him easter in us, be a dayspring to Major Presentations the dimness in us…” Fr. Paul Coutinho, S.J. “Life in Easter Nightspring” —Gerard Manley Hopkins, S.J. Author, “How Big is Your God?”

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February 27, 2012 America 23 The text skips back and forth in Didion describes the mutual fear of my mind turning increasingly to ill - time as Didion describes Quintana’s abandonment by adoptees and their ness, to the end of promise, the dwin - unusual childhood—staying at fancy adoptive parents. “Once she was born,” dling of the days, the inevitability of hotels with her parents on book tours Didion writes, “I was never not afraid. the fading, the dying of the brightness.” and meeting the couple’s celebrity I was afraid of swimming pools, high- Critics have studied Didion’s writ - friends. Quintana showed early signs tension wires, lye under the sink, ing to determine what makes her voice of depression and seemed determined aspirin in the medicine cabinet...rat - so distinctive. She liberally sprinkles in to skip over childhood. At age 5 she tlesnakes, riptides, landslides, two- and three-word paragraphs, called a mental hospital to inquire strangers who appeared at the door, rhetorical questions, italics and repeti - what she should do if she were “going unexplained fevers....” tion of key phrases to drive home her crazy.” About the same time she dialed The author also was tormented by message. Twentieth Century Fox to ask how she doubts: “ What if I fail to take care of Although reviewers have praised could become a star. this baby? What if Didion for her honesty As an adult, Quintana was diag - this baby fails to ON THE WEB and directness in Blue nosed variously with manic depres - thrive, what if this James Martin, S.J., and Bill McGarvey Nights , the pervasive sion, obsessive-compulsive disorder baby fails to love analyze the Oscar nominees. tone of fear, anxiety and borderline personality disorder. me?” (The italics americamagazine.org/podcast and guilt soon leads to She died of acute pancreatitis follow - are hers). She was melancholy. ing a “cascade of medical crises.” wracked with guilt and wondered if The author, who recently turned The book’s back cover features a she were a good enough parent. 77, seems to live in constant fear of captivating picture of Quintana with a “Blue Nights” refers to a period aging and decline in health. The pages serious expression, sitting on a large around the summer solstice when the brim with her maladies and frailties. chair, leaning forward toward the cam - twilight is “long and blue.” Didion She has suffered from shingles, sun- era, with hands clasping her cheeks. chose the book’s title because “I found induced skin damage and falls. She once collapsed on the street and spent days in a hospital. On another occa - sion she fell in her Manhattan apart - POETRY CONTEST ment. She remembers lying on the Poems are being accepted for the floor bleeding, unable to reach any of her 13 telephones. 2012 Foley Poetry Award. Didion concedes she has spent much of her life in denial of aging, Each entrant is asked to submit only one typed, unpublished poem of 30 despite its obvious evidence. “Only lines or fewer that is not under consideration elsewhere. Include contact yesterday,” she writes, “I could still do information on the same page as the poem. Poems will not be returned. arithmetic, remember telephone num - Please do not submit poems by e-mail or fax. Submissions must be post - bers, rent a car at the airport and drive marked between Jan. 1 and March 31, 2012. it out of the lot without freezing, stop - ping at the key moment, feet already Poems received outside the designated period will be treated as regular on the pedals but immobilized by the poetry submissions, and are not eligible for the prize. question of which is the accelerator and which the brake.” The winning poem will be published in the June 4-11 issue of She resents frequent references to America. Three runner-up poems will be published in subsequent her frail appearance, and at age 75 issues. experienced “a revived sense of the possible” after viewing a picture of Cash prize $1,000 Sophia Loren arriving at a publicity Send poems to: event, noting that Loren and she are the same age. Foley Poetry Contest, America, In an admission that is surprisingly 106 West 56th St., New York, NY 10019 frank for a famous writer, Didion says her “cognitive confidence seems to have vanished altogether. Even the cor -

24 America February 27, 2012 rect stance for telling you this, the pose in life, but their wisdom seems to as the story develops. ways to describe what is happening to have eluded Didion. Tony is the hero who is not a hero me, the attitude, the tone, the very One finishes this pain-filled memoir so much as a survivor. Looking back words, now elude my grasp.” feeling sad for Didion because she has on his Prufrockian life, he decides that Readers cannot help but notice that suffered so much and because she seems he has never actually lived. Nor has he Didion’s reflections on aging, illness unable—or unwilling—to connect with understood his past—starting with his and death are devoid of anything friends, nature, gratitude, transcendence relationship with his boyhood friend, resembling spirituality. If she has pon - and other sources of joy and happiness Adrian Finn, and his college girlfriend, dered the big questions of creation, that can give life meaning even in the the manipulative Veronica Ford. purpose, meaning and afterlife, there is midst of great loss and pain. Veronica alternately seduced and no evidence of it in Blue Nights . scorned Tony, a pattern he found— Countless other memoir writers BILL WILLIAMS is a freelance writer in West and still finds—both enticing and Hartford, Conn., and a former editorial writer have faced similar physical and mental for The Hartford Courant. He is a member of repellant. losses and yet have found joy and pur - the National Book Critics Circle. The narrative follows characters who are elitist but not necessarily elite. Coming of age in the 1960s, they want DIANE SCHARPER to be different. They worry that they will grow up to be ordinary like their YOUTHFUL INDISCRETIONS parents and that, as Tony puts it, “Life wouldn’t turn out to be like THE SENSE OF AN ENDING Much of the pleasure of The Sense Literature.... The things Literature was A Novel of an Ending lies in watching Tony all about [were]: love, sex, morality, By Julian Barnes Webster, an obtuse and unreliable nar - friendship, happiness, suffering, Knopf. 176p $23.95 rator, try to unravel betrayal, adultery, the mysteries of his good and evil, heroes Winner of this year’s Man Booker youth and so remove and villains, guilt and Prize, Britain’s most prestigious fiction the blinders from his innocence...murder, award, The Sense of an Ending, by adult eyes. The novel suicide, death, God.” Julian Barnes, is a philosophical mys - feels less like a story Adulthood was the tery story that morphs into a morality and more like a dis - opposite. It was spent tale. The mystery is not so much about cursive memoir, which lost in vague shadows. “who done it” as it is about what really gives the book a sense And that is where happened and why. of authenticity. But it Tony finds himself as One of the most highly regarded also makes the reading the story opens. British writers working today, Barnes slow going. Readers Retired and in his was shortlisted for the Booker Prize should know, however, late 60s, Tony is shak - for three previous novels. He has also that the sluggishness ing off the torpor of received numerous other awards, of the first half of the late middle age and among them the William Somerset novel speeds up to a crescendo of gal - returning to the weighty questions Maugham Prize for an outstanding vanizing, page-turning events that that marked his adolescence. He has first book, Metroland , (1980), a novel more than reward a reader’s patience. received a mysterious bequest that that, like this one, focuses on coming The novel brims with metaphysical involves his college sweetheart and a of age, sexual initiation, responsibility musings and striking details. Long, boyhood friend who committed sui - and philosophical angst. Barnes has breathless sentences are followed by cide. published extensively, including several short, punchy sentences, sometimes In the years since college, he has well-received detective novels (under single words, adding an ironic com - married, had a child, divorced on the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh.) Of mentary and a kind of poetry to the friendly terms and is settling into a the novels published under his own text. Barnes impeccably melds dia - bourgeois life of volunteer activities name, those best known in the United logue with description to drive the and lowered expectations. Tony feels States are A History of the World in story line forward, generating sus - that life has rushed by him and sees 10½ Chapters (1989) and Flaubert’s pense with an off-handed remark or an himself a passive observer of the past Parrot (1984). odd comment that takes on meaning four decades.

February 27, 2012 America 25 As Tony pieces together dim mem - my guilt? Should it? As Tony puts it, what happens. One thing our hero ories of his days at a London boys’ “But the very action of naming some - ultimately learns is that a quick and prep school replete with debates about thing that subsequently happens—of barely remembered action has the the meaning of life, so do we. Like wishing specific evil, and that evil com - power to permanently mar many lives. Tony, we think we understand what ing to pass—this still has a shiver of happened, only to learn that reality is the otherworldly about it.” DIANE SCHARPER, the author of Radiant: not always what it seems. As best as he What actually happens in The Prayer Poems, teaches English at Towson can half-remember, he and his friends Sense of an Ending does not matter so University in Maryland. had disdained sports, school and mid - much as how the characters perceive dle-class values. They “grasped life— and truth, and morality, and art—far more clearly than our compromised PAUL WILKES elders,” as Tony put it. Adrian, who went to Cambridge while Tony and NON-TRIVIAL PURSUITS the others went to lesser regarded schools, was especially discerning. CALLED TO HAPPINESS the newsstand offerings. Indeed, there Reflecting on his youthful idealism, Where Faith and Psychology were dozens of titles assuring happi - Tony recalls the philosophical discus - Meet ness. As I paged through a few of sions that occurred in his classes—pri - By Sidney Callahan them, I could see the harried traveler marily his history and literature cours - Orbis. 208p $20 going through a list: es. He remembers discussions about subjective as opposed to objective On the highway to happiness, Sidney • Check e-mail interpretations of the past. Callahan may well be thankful she has • Pick up laundry The boys discussed existentialism an intersection called faith to duck • Organize dinner party and the morality or immorality of sui - into, where she can pause and catch • Get happiness cide when a classmate killed himself her breath as the traffic roars by. after he had gotten a girl pregnant. Summoned to serve on Emory Positive psychology, run out to its Adrian—influenced by Camus—con - University’s four-year interdisciplinary logical conclusion, devoid of a faith tended that suicide was the expression Pursuit of Happiness Project, Dr. life, would enshrine Eat, Pray, Love as of one’s ultimate freedom. The others Callahan, a psychologist by training, the three deities of a New Trinity. But were not so sure and concluded that mother of six and Catholic by choice, Dr. Callahan carefully and with appro - killing oneself was wrong. The irony bravely takes on the subject of some priate scholarly detachment (she is became evident when Adrian later 43,000 Amazon.com listings and care - also a distinguished scholar at the committed suicide in college after he fully weaves her way through a consid - Hastings Center, in company with her took up with Tony’s former girlfriend, eration of our national obsession: husband, Daniel Callahan) describes Veronica. happiness. in detail the premises of positive psy - Tension builds when Tony receives Am I? Should I be? Can I be? How chology without ever, at least to this an unexpected surprise in the form of would I know if I am not? Most reader’s mind, completely giving her - a financial bequest from Mrs. Ford, important, how do I get it? self over to it. Veronica’s mother. She has also left In today’s so-called secular society She states her position: Tony Adrian’s diary as well as a letter (I personally do not believe it is), what Tony had written to Adrian in a fit of we have is a struggle between the Clearly I am also endorsing a jealousy many years earlier. But bright promises of positive psychology very optimistic view of the Veronica has the diary and refuses to (like the little engine that could, we potential of theology, psychology give it up. “think we can, think we can”...be and science to help human Although not overtly religious, the happy) and the murkier quest of faith, beings change their views about narrative turns on the conflict between which sees the pursuit of happiness for themselves.... I am also a con - good and evil. The implied questions its own sake a puerile and ultimately vinced Christian believer, and so that drive the story are these: What unsatisfactory venture. I argue that religious and spiritu - happens if I curse my neighbor and I was reading Dr. Callahan’s book al wisdom can bring happiness that curse is fulfilled? Does the fact on a recent flight, and when I stopped or blessedness [I liked that that I was young and foolish mitigate to change planes, I browsed through usage] in this life as well as the

26 America February 27, 2012 next.... Yet in a secular age, reli - fight for God and survival.... I felt like demand decades more research gious good news and other posi - a warrior queen on crusade or at least and work. Be prepared; many, tive signs of the time can easily an enthusiastic pilgrim in Jerusalem.” many more books, studies, and be discounted. Aha! That’s it! Seek not happiness research projects on all facets of directly, and it will be your reward, happiness are on their way. We While seeking to define and dissect provided.... Of course, the “provided” hear only the opening bars of the happiness, a slippery is the problem. Will overture of a very long symphony subject under anyone’s it be dogmatic consisting of many movements. knife, the author adroitly adherence to reli - points to other ways to gious beliefs? Sorry, Alas, Dr. Callahan seems to perpet - approach the subject. no. Will it be pover - uate the field of happiness studies. She quotes the simple ty? No, as many of Check your iPhone; it may be coming approach of Dorothy us who gallantly to a university department near you. Day and Peter Maurin of lived the Worker life But in my heart I have a sense that she the Catholic Worker, only to slowly could find no other way to end this who advocated the cre - morph into middle book, which, if my instincts are cor - ation of a societal struc - class statistics would rect, was no fun to write. After all, ture where it would nat - find out. The three of the chapter headings ended up urally be “easy for people answer? Ready, so as questions. to be good,” with happi - you need not wade A few of her closing words come ness naturally flowing through those closer to saying what has been danced from actions that would 43,000 volumes? around for 154 pages: “Will it come to result from such an outlook. pass in the near future that God’s She looks closer to home, to her own Yes, human happiness is a reality authorship of the drama of human upbringing in a southern military and that comes from God and can be happiness will receive its rightful Calvinist family. “Fortunately, the out - successfully pursued here and thanks and praise? I devoutly hope so.” come of generations of southern piety now. Yes, individuals can become Not so complicated, after all. provided an unnoticed positive charac - happy, and they and the world ter... While not consciously stressed, will be better for it. These core PAUL WILKES is the author of many books on the moral and religious virtues inculcat - affirmations, much elaborated spirituality, religious belief and practice,most recently The Art of Confession: Renewing ed produced happiness.” and argued for here, are such Yourself Through the Practice of And Dr. Callahan looks to her own complicated issues that they will Personal Honesty (Workman). faith life: “Jesus Christ embodies the truth that God’s loving forgiveness and healing are offered to all: the foreigner, the tax collector, the leper and the lunatic, outcast women, mothers and children, and the exploited poor.... Christ’s disciples are told to extend God’s love and mercy to everyone, with no exceptions....” She tells a lovely story of her Navy captain father visiting the young Callahans, with three young children, in a shabby slum apartment, under the influence of the Worker’s belief that the external requirements of the intention - al life were few, the internal rewards great. “Sidney, Sidney,” he kept saying. “You can’t really be happy like this.” “But, yes, in fact, I really was happy.... We were fighting the good

February 27, 2012 America 27 “The Church needs you, counts on you and continues to turn to you with confidence, particularly to reach the geographical and spiritual places where others do not reach or find it difficult to reach.”

Pope Benedict XVI, address to the Society of Jesus, General Congregation 35, February 21, 2008

The Society of Jesus in the United States

Responding to the Call of Christ.

Everyone has a great calling. Let us help you discern yours.

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28 America February 27, 2012 LETTERS bands could avoid lying when asked by sure, a secular exploration (perhaps a their spouses where they were. secular parable), but I wonder if fault - CHARLES A. HAMMOND ing it for not mentioning God is A Terrible Irony Is Born Sandusky, Mich. In “The Ethical Traveler,” by Tim somewhat beside the point. Padgett (1/30), there is a terrible Well Done! Payne appears to be reversing the irony. The author’s calls to abstain I really enjoyed Kerry Weber’s article old idea in Christian theology that we from condescension are themselves “Writing Home” (1/30). I know steal Egyptian gold (that is, the wis - thoroughly condescending. His Andalusia well, but I learned a lot dom of the pagans) and use it to ren - pedantic assertions fail to reach about Gethsemane and Margaret der Christian wisdom more intelligi - beyond the same tired narrative that Mitchell’s house, which I have never ble. Payne has stolen biblical gold and everyone who has read a guidebook visited, and I also enjoyed seeing in the used it effectively to render secular knows. Worst of all, Mr. Padgett’s online slideshow that accompanied the humanism more intelligent. That words have a whiff of an unpleasant article the hometown and school of entails bringing it to the realization bias against his own fellow citizens. Graham Greene. The whole thing was that, yes, we are fallen, that we are all Personally, I find that there are bal - well done! in this together and that only some - ances to be found between esteeming FRANCES FLORENCOURT thing like a love that has the capacity and denigrating one’s own country and Arlington, Mass. to withstand rejection and pain stands a chance of getting us out of the one you are visiting. While travel - Children of Adam ling with an open mind is important, this mess. And while God is not men - Re Maurice Timothy Reidy’s review this includes a mind open to embrac - tioned, the film does reject many false of Alan Payne’s film “The ing the parts of your own culture that gods along the way, leaving the viewer Descendants” (“Family Circles,” you like better than those elsewhere. to wonder about the real source 1/30): “Descend-ants” can also refer Yes, we should be polite and try to fit of our salvation. Not bad for a to the children of Adam. In that light, in as possible, but not at the expense of Hollywood film. I read the film as an exploration of STEVE MILES our identity. EDWARD VISEL human life after the fall. It is, to be Immaculata, Pa. Iwate, Japan

Cantina Wisdom CLASSIFIED CRISTO REY PHILADELPHIA HIGH SCHOOL is seeking experienced educators to It is refreshing to read an article like join our team as founding faculty and adminis - “The Ethical Traveler” (1/30), which Positions trators to help develop one of Philadelphia’s reminds us about the importance of CREIGHTON UNIVERSITY, a Jesuit Catholic most promising educational options for young openness to other cultures and discov - University in Omaha, Neb., is seeking a men and women from families with limited Director for its Creighton Center for Service financial resources. The school will open in ering their diversity and enjoyment and Justice (C.C.S.J.). The Director will over - August 2012. Visit www.phillyCR.org. through local food and drink. I partic - see and direct the work of engaging students in ularly enjoyed the Mexican cantina sto - community service, reflection and action on Wills ries, which reminded me of the chick - behalf of justice and sustainability as an integral Please remember America in your will. Our legal part of their Jesuit Catholic university educa - title is: America Press Inc., 106 West 56th Street, en feet appetizer I was served once tion. The Director must possess knowledge of New York, NY 10019. with my tequila. On the wall was Catholic social teaching and Ignatian spirituali - inscribed a quaint proverb, “Si el agua ty with skill leading ministry teams of profes - America classified. Classified advertisements are sionals and/or university students. The accepted for publication in either the print version destruye a los caminos, que no hara a Director will be expected to work collaborative - of America or on our Web site, www.americam - los intestinos” (If water destroys roads, ly across a variety of cultures and in a multifaith agazine.org. Ten-word minimum. Rates are per imagine what it can do to your environment. The ideal candidate will have: 1) word per issue. 1-5 times: $1.50; 6-11 times: Experience of community service, 2) $1.28; 12-23 times: $1.23; 24-41 times: $1.17; intestines). Another cantina was Experience with Jesuit/Ignatian spirituality, 3) 42 times or more: $1.12. For an additional $30, named La Oficina (the Office), so hus - Knowledge of Catholic social teaching, 4) A your print ad will be posted on America ’s Web minimum of two years’ experience leading col - site for one week. Ads may be submitted by e-mail lege students in faith-justice ministry, 5) A min - to: [email protected]; by fax to (928) America (ISSN 0002-7049) is published weekly (except for 14 imum of two years’ experience in 222-2107; by postal mail to: Classified combined issues: Jan. 2–9, 16–23, Jan. 30–Feb. 6, April 23–30, supervision/administration, 6) Master’s of Department, America , 106 West 56th St., New June 4–11, 18–25, July 2–9, 16–23, July 30–Aug. 6, Aug. 13–20, Aug. 27–Sept. 3, Sept. 10–17, Nov. 26–Dec. 3, Dec. 24–31) by Divinity, M.A. in theology/ministry, social York, NY 10019. To post a classified ad online, America Press, Inc., 106 West 56th Street, New York, NY 10019. go to our home page and click on “Advertising” at Periodical postage is paid at New York, N.Y., and additional mailing work, social justice or related discipline. To offices. Business Manager: Lisa Pope. Circulation: (800) 627–9533. apply: https://careers.creighton.edu. To locate the top of the page. We do not accept ad copy over Subscriptions: United States, $56 per year; add U.S. $30 postage and GST (#131870719) for Canada; or add U.S. $56 per year for C.C.S.J. information: http://blogs.creighton the phone. MasterCard and Visa accepted. For international priority airmail. Postmaster: Send address changes to: .edu/ccsj/. more information call: (212) 515-0102. America, P.O. Box 293059, Kettering, OH 45429.

February 27, 2012 America 29 Best Foot Forward We become alarmed only when our literally taking milk from babies to help Best wishes, Patricia Kossmann, as financial fortune is severely threatened. solve the debt crisis caused mainly by you hang up your tap shoes (Of Many MIKE SCHLACTER big investment banks. Yet it seems to Nashville,Tenn. Things, 1/30), but try to keep your me (I hope I’m mistaken) that many feet nimble as you serve others in Work Ethics who call themselves pro-life are lined future chosen volunteer work. What a Re“The Continuing Mission,” by up with those favoring these cuts. wonderful tribute to the co-workers Kevin Clarke (1/16): Catholic Relief One thing we can all do, regardless you have met, thought with and I’m Services is one of the church’s true trea - of our political labels, is pray the sure prayed with over these years. May sures. Ken Hackett provided excellent Rosary, especially the first joyful mys - many more delightful encounters with stewardship at C.R.S., and we hope tery, for all troubled pregnant women. many new friends bless your new and pray that Carolyn Woo will do the Mary, after all, was comforted by the beginnings. angel before she said her big yes. PAT CUDDIHY, R.H.S.J. same. I already like her work ethic: JIM LEIN Kingston, Ont., Canada “Blessed Mother, Father, Son and the Minot, N.D. Holy Spirit, today is a workday, and we all have to show up for work.” A Campaign Elephant Christian Enforcers? BILL COLLIER Re “In Harm’s Way” by Mary Meehan Ivoryton, Conn. In “What We Must Face” (1/16), John (1/16): We have become what and Kavanaugh, S.J., launches a campaign who we said we were going to destroy. Big Step Backward to reach the third largest religious We are not a Christian nation as we Re your editorial, “The Way of Life” group in America, ex-Catholics; but he enforce justice and peace according to (1/16): We took a big step backward appeals to nostalgia instead of our terms. We protect our national when we cut welfare benefits. The addressing the elephants in the room: material interests, then go to church on group that would now be receiving the paternalism, sexism and homo - Sunday and pray for the soldiers we such benefits has the highest abortion phobia that undermine the credibility put in harm’s way. We need to own this rate. Private, small group and individu - of the leadership of the church. and require just wars, if they exist, to be al help is needed, yes, but it will always Church leaders have become managers the only ones waged. The fiasco of be insufficient. Public programs are focused on power and control rather President Bush’s wars in Iraq and also needed, but more cuts in these than on modeling the behavior of Afghanistan has been sanctioned and programs seem on the way, including Christ, who scandalized his culture supported by our 535 representatives. nutrition programs like W.I.C. This is when he ate with “sinners” and healed on the Sabbath. Many ex-Catholics know that to be WITHOUT GUILE Catholic means to be all-embracing, to appreciate all sources of revelation as paths to truth. We have an obligation to form a right conscience as adults and know that we will be judged not by our sins, but by how our actions witness to the impartial and boundless compassion of God. The church seems to have adopted a fortress mentality; the leadership protects the followers from the corruptions of “secular” cul - ture. My Jesuit Catholic education taught me to find God in all things. BARBARA DECOURSEY ROY St. Albans, Mont. N I E T S K

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30 America February 27, 2012 THE WORD A Faith That Binds Us SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT (B), MARCH 4, 2012 Readings: Gn 22:1-18; Ps 116:10-19; Rom 8:31-34; Mk 9:2-10 “This is my beloved Son. Listen to Him” (Mk 9:7)

oday’s Scripture readings are as the sacrifice of Abraham, but as the Elijah was specifically prophesied to challenging, to say the least. binding (or submission) of Isaac, as usher in the messiah (Mal 4:5). In T The first recounts God’s Abraham radically binds his Jesus’ day, there was also a tradition demand that Abraham sacrifice Isaac progeny to God and his that, like Elijah, Moses had to him as a holocaust. Abraham takes promises. This approach been assumed into heaven the unsuspecting Isaac on a three-day does not solve everything, awaiting the messiah. Thus, journey and then ties him up. In the but it leads in a more what we have now is an eschato - instant before Abraham is about to kill promising direction. We logical moment and a revelation his son, his hand is stayed by an angel, can also remember that as that eclipses Sinai on this who declares God’s pleasure: “I swear we bind and submit our - mountain of transfiguration. by myself, declares the Lord, that selves to God, God also The message the disciples because you acted as you did in not binds and submits himself receive from the Father in an withholding from me your beloved to us in covenantal fidelity. enveloping cloud is: “This is my son, I will bless you abundantly....” Paul’s message in the sec - beloved Son. Listen to him.” Those Making sense of all this has taxed ond reading reflects this dual bind - both Jewish and Christian traditions. ing. Paul begins, “If God is for us, PRAYING WITH SCRIPTURE Several interpretations seem less than who can be against us?” He then • What in your life binds you most closely fruitful. One poses God as an ultimate leads us through a wonderful med - to Christ? tester: “I wonder how far I can push ley of rhetorical questions and pos - Abraham?” Another sees in the story a sible tribulations. He ends his med - • Consider ways by which this relationship is compromised. E

contrast between Israel and her neigh - itation—not part of Sunday’s N N u d bors, who practiced child sacrifice. The Lectionary passage—with the

• What might you do to remove those d a t

obstacles and deepen your love? :

philosopher S Øren Kierkegaard offers words: “For I am convinced that t r a third view: Faith is absurd from a neither death, nor life, nor angels, a mere ethical stance. All three interpre - nor principalities…nor any other crea - heroes and guides of the past from tations are unsatisfying. The first ture will be able to separate us from Abraham on, those whose lives antici - seems to depict God as one who tests the love of God in Christ Jesus our pated the fulfillment of God’s bless - to the level of torture. And the story Lord” (Rom 8:38-39). ings, now fade into the background. does not suggest any contrasts at all. The Gospel takes us to the transfig - There is no one but Jesus. Our sub - Finally, I urge the reader not to consid - uration of Jesus. Here Peter, James and mission of faith is to him alone. We er Christian faith as ethically absurd. John discover Jesus radiantly trans - bind ourselves to him even as that (If you think God has ordered you to formed and conversing with Moses means going to Jerusalem and witness - kill an innocent person, call 911. That and Elijah, who represent, as the ing his passion. Moreover, as Paul isn’t God.) Preface of today’s Mass suggests, the reminds us, we bind ourselves to him What do we make of this con - law and the prophets respectively. in the midst of our own tribulations. founding story? Consider the Jewish There are certainly associations. For And we do so knowing that he has also practice of referring to the episode not instance, it is illuminating to recall that irrevocably bound himself to us. both Moses and Elijah directly The Transfiguration offers striking encountered the Lord on Mount Sinai insight into Christ’s authority, mission PETER FELDMEIER is the Murray/Bacik Professor of Catholic Studies at the University (Ex 24; 1 Kgs 19), and both were and nature. The journey begins and of Toledo. linked with the coming of the messiah. ends with Jesus. PETER FELDMEIER

February 27, 2012 America 31 HAPPINESS Joan Chittister hardcover · $20.00 EERDMANS THE EERDMANS COMPANION TO THE BIBLE Gordon D. Fee and Robert L. Hubbard Jr., general editors hardcover · $40.00

UNEXPECTED DESTINATIONS An Evangelical Pilgrimage to World Christianity Wesley Granberg-Michaelson paperback · $24.00

FROM BILLY GRAHAM TO SARAH PALIN Evangelicals and the Betrayal of American Conservatism D. G. Hart hardcover · $25.00

A DIFFERENT KIND OF CELL The Story of a Murderer Who Became a Monk W. Paul Jones paperback · $14.00

ABRAHAM KUYPER A Short and Personal Introduction Richard J. Mouw paperback · $16.00

JESUS CHRIST AND THE LIFE OF THE MIND Mark A. Noll hardcover · $25.00

THE NEW EVANGELICALS Expanding the Vision of the Common Good Marcia Pally paperback · $20.00

THE JESUS WAY A Conversation on the Ways That Jesus Is the Way Eugene Peterson paperback · $17.00

NOT SURE A Pastor’s Journey from Faith to Doubt John Suk paperback · $18.00

AN EERDMANS CENTURY, 1911–2011 Larry ten Harmsel with Reinder Van Til hardcover · $20.00

THE ETHICAL VISION OF CLINT EASTWOOD Sara Anson Vaux paperback · $24.00

At your bookstore, or call 800-253-7521 www.eerdmans.com

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